The Real Vue.js Developer Journey: Wins, Woes & Lessons

Transitioning from React to Vue.js was disorienting at first. The concepts were familiar — component-based architecture, declarative UI — but just different enough to throw me off. v-for instead of map()? ref() and reactive() instead of useState()? It took time to adjust.

Once I pushed through that friction, Vue clicked. The more I built with it — prototyping MVPs, scaling client apps — the more the design choices made sense. It became a go-to for projects that needed fast iteration without sacrificing maintainability.

My Vue Setup

My Vue 3 stack, used across multiple client projects:

• Vite — Fast dev server with HMR that keeps iteration cycles under seconds.
• Pinia — State management with a modular, composable design. Scales without the bloat.
• Vue Router — Flexible client-side navigation. Works well with auth flows and lazy loading.
• TypeScript — Type safety that catches bugs before runtime and keeps codebases maintainable.

This combination is the result of evaluating trade-offs between build speed and feature richness. It has its quirks — here's what I've learned working through them.

The Learning Curve

Coming from React, I had to unlearn a lot. Vue's reactivity is proxy-based — ref() for single values, reactive() for objects, watch() and watchEffect() for side effects. Unlike React's explicit re-renders via state setters, Vue's fine-grained reactivity updates only what's necessary. That leads to performance gains, but requires understanding to avoid pitfalls like over-reactivity.

I initially tried mapping everything to React equivalents — ref() as useState(), computed() as useMemo(). That didn't work well. Vue has its own philosophy: declarative rendering, composition over inheritance, and a reactivity model designed for data-driven UIs.

What Helped

Building things. Vue's documentation is clear and packed with interactive examples. Small side projects — a dashboard POC, a few component experiments — helped me test ideas without client deadlines. Starting with the Composition API and building small components before tackling larger features made the adjustment manageable.

State Management with Pinia

I'd heard about Vuex's mutation-heavy boilerplate and wasn't looking forward to it. Then I found Pinia — Vuex reimagined: lighter, more intuitive, and designed for the Composition API.

Pinia offers a flatter structure, better dev tools integration (time-travel debugging in Vue Devtools), and solid TypeScript support. A cart store from a recent e-commerce project:

import { defineStore } from "pinia";
 
export const useCartStore = defineStore("cart", {
  state: () => ({
    items: [],
    loading: false,
    error: null,
  }),
 
  getters: {
    itemCount: (state) => state.items.reduce((sum, i) => sum + i.quantity, 0),
    totalPrice: (state) =>
      state.items.reduce((sum, i) => sum + i.price * i.quantity, 0),
    discountedTotal: (state) => {
      const total = state.items.reduce(
        (sum, i) => sum + i.price * i.quantity,
        0,
      );
      return total > 100 ? total * 0.9 : total; // 10% discount over $100
    },
  },
 
  actions: {
    async fetchCart(userId) {
      try {
        this.loading = true;
        this.items = await fetchCartFromAPI(userId);
      } catch (err) {
        this.error =
          err instanceof Error ? err.message : "Oops, something went wrong.";
      } finally {
        this.loading = false;
      }
    },
    addItem(item) {
      const existing = this.items.find((i) => i.id === item.id);
      if (existing) {
        existing.quantity += item.quantity;
      } else {
        this.items.push(item);
      }
    },
  },
});

What works well:

• TypeScript-friendly — inferred types, less manual declarations.
• Auto-complete in VS Code — faster development, fewer errors.
• No boilerplate mutations — actions handle sync/async logic directly.
• Modular — plugins for persistence (localStorage sync) or undo/redo.

For larger apps, Pinia's store composition splits state across modules without losing organization.

Routing

Vue Router is powerful, but dynamic routes, nested views, and programmatic navigation took time to get comfortable with — especially coming from Next.js's file-based routing.

The manual route definitions felt dated at first, but the flexibility pays off for role-based access control or dynamic params like /dashboard/:userId/widgets.

My Typical Setup

import { createRouter, createWebHistory } from "vue-router";
 
import Dashboard from "@/views/Dashboard.vue";
import Home from "@/views/Home.vue";
import Product from "@/views/Product.vue";
 
const routes = [
  { path: "/", component: Home },
  { path: "/product/:id", component: Product, props: true },
  {
    path: "/dashboard/:userId",
    component: Dashboard,
    meta: { requiresAuth: true },
    children: [
      { path: "widgets", component: () => import("@/components/Widgets.vue") },
    ],
  },
];
 
const router = createRouter({
  history: createWebHistory(),
  routes,
});
 
router.beforeEach((to, from, next) => {
  if (to.meta.requiresAuth && !isAuthenticated()) {
    next("/login");
  } else {
    next();
  }
});
 
export default router;

For faster prototyping, I'm looking at file-based routing via unplugin-vue-router. Nuxt's convention-over-configuration approach is worth borrowing.

Learn more about advanced routing

Performance

Scaling to large datasets — real-time analytics dashboards — exposed issues: slow renders, sluggish updates, memory leaks. Vue's virtual DOM is efficient by default, but production apps need proactive optimization.

What Helped

• Lazy loading with defineAsyncComponent to chunk bundles.
• computed over watch for cached derivations.
• Dev performance tracking:

import { createApp } from "vue";
 
import App from "@/App.vue";
 
const app = createApp(App);
 
app.config.performance = import.meta.env.DEV;
 
app.config.compilerOptions = {
  comments: false,
  delimiters: ["${", "}"],
  whitespace: "condense",
};
 
app.config.errorHandler = (err, instance, info) => {
  console.error(`Error: ${err.toString()}\nInfo: ${info}`);
};
 
app.mount("#app");

One project saw a 40% improvement in Time to Interactive (TTI). Vue Devtools and Lighthouse audits help track these gains.

Ecosystem Integration

I've integrated Vue with Node/Express and Firebase backends, using Axios or TanStack Query for data fetching. Vitest for unit tests, Cypress for E2E. Deployment via Vercel or Netlify.

Vue's footprint (under 30KB gzipped) makes it practical for micro-frontends or embedded UIs.

The Verdict

What Works

• Single-file components promote encapsulation and reusability.
• Reactive system feels natural once learned — efficient, declarative UIs.
• Pinia balances simplicity with extensibility.
• Ecosystem synergy — Vite + TypeScript + Router is a solid toolchain.

What Doesn't

• Setup overhead — TypeScript and routing configuration can slow down initial prototyping.
• Pinia overkill for simple apps — sometimes basic ref composables are enough.
• Eager reactivity needs finesse in data-intensive scenarios.
• Options vs Composition API split can be confusing when learning.

Final Thoughts

Vue went from a curiosity to a reliable choice. The syntax adjustment was real, but the framework underneath is solid — fast development without the overhead of heavier alternatives.

I still use Next.js when SSR/SEO is the priority. But for lightweight, reactive frontends — especially greenfield projects — Vue 3 works well. Start small, build something real, and see how it feels.